BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Thursday with a special envoy sent by new South Korean President Moon Jae-in as the two countries attempted to mend a rift in ties over the deployment of a high-tech American missile defense system in South Korea to guard against North Korean threats.
Wang and former South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan were expected to discuss ways of containing North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons activities as well as the economic fallout over the deployment in South Korea of the U.S. missile defense system called THAAD.
Seoul and Washington have argued that the missile system is aimed at North Korean aggression, while China sees it as a threat to its own security. It has retaliated against Seoul by suspending visits to South Korea by Chinese tour groups and trips to China by South Korean entertainers. South Korean businesses have faced boycotts, especially the retail group Lotte which provided the land on which the system is being constructed.
China’s top diplomat on Thursday reiterated calls for its dismantling.“We’re now at a crossroads in our relations,” Wang told Lee as he urged the new South Korean administration to make a decision to “remove the obstacles” that stand in the way of healthy ties between the two Asian economic powerhouses.
In recent weeks Beijing and Seoul have signaled a desire to repair relations following the election of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has taken a friendlier stance toward China than his conservative predecessor. Although he has sometimes criticized the THAAD deployment, Moon has not said he will remove it.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping called Moon last week to congratulate him on his election, Moon reportedly asked Xi for help in ending the economic retaliation that has taken a toll on South Korean businesses.
Beijing has maintained its hard line, and in an editorial Thursday, the Communist Party newspaper Global Times said China’s opposition “cannot be traded for the new government’s friendly posture toward China.”“Stopping the deployment of THAAD is the bottom line of China,” the newspaper said. “Seoul needs to make a choice between deploying THAAD and resuming Sino-South Korean relations. It should not hope to have it both ways.”